There are many things that go into pricing  your home, but the most important is an objective home valuation. A correctly estimated home means a home priced at its right market value, which means it will sell faster.

When you are asked how much your Incline Village home is worth,  the best and most accurate answer will be given to you by a real estate agent or REALTOR® like me.

You may be wondering how I can come up with the estimate. How do you know it’s right and not just a wild guess?

Different agents do it different ways. Some rely on a mountain of information, others do a series of computation combined with a gut check and still others just add a few dollars to what his or her company’s online home estimator produced. I actually don’t recommend the last one because online estimators are not accurate.

Despite the differences, all agents and REALTORS® use a comparative market analysis (CMA) tool. To determine the value, we look at the property location, the condition of the property, and the housing market condition in your area.  

To create an accurate CMA, we check three things.

Number 1. Most recent homes sold. Recent means properties that have sold within the last six months.  The more recent the data, the better. The market is always changing so you want your the data to be as fresh and recent as possible. This is the most important piece of data we have to check because it reflects how much buyers are willing to pay for the properties.

Number 2.  Active listings.  These are homes currently for sale. Many real estate agents make the mistake of using this as the basis for pricing but it is hard to know if they will sell or if they have been overpriced.

Number 3. Pending sales. These are homes which have gone under contract but have not yet closed. This list is a good indicator of value because it is a recent agreement. The disadvantage about it is we won’t know the actual price until the deal is finished.

What do we look at in terms of comparables?

Bullet 1. Home style. When you sell your Incline Village home, we should come up with three or more recently sold homes which closely match your home in terms of home style. This means if your home has a colonial style, the comparables should have a similar home style.

Bullet 2. Number of bedrooms. Knowing how many bedrooms a house has is crucial in the comparing process. If your Incline Village has one or more bedrooms than the comparables, certain adjustment will be made.

Bullet 3. Number of bathrooms. As one of the two rooms that sell a house, it is important to check how many full and half bathrooms your home offers.

Bullet 4. Square footage. Each home’s square footage is different, so adjustments will be done depending on how much bigger or smaller your property is.

Bullet 5.  Garage.  Do you have a one-car garage or a two-car garage? What is the average size of the garages your neighborhood has?

Bullet 6. Age of home. Older homes have lower equity, so if your home is older than the comparables, some deductions have to be made.

Bullet 7. Condition of kitchen and bathroom. These two are the rooms that sell the house, and its condition drastically affects the sale.

Bullet 8. Condition of the property.  Is your property well-maintained or slightly run down? The condition of your property can also add or deduct from your property value.

Bullet 9. Lot size. In many subdivisions, lot sizes are similar. In Incline Village, lots sizes differ. Cookie cutter homes are rare in this community, and lots usually vary as well.

Bullet 10. Improvements and upgrades. Any improvements or additions you’ve made to your home, as long the buyer wants it, will also be included in the valuation.

Here are a few other things we REALTORS® also take a look at, then adjust the price accordingly.

• The local community.  The kind of environment in the subdivision is important. Communities with high job rate and efficient amenities have better market value than areas with low job rate. The quality of school district. This factor adds weight to the estimated market value of a home.

• Homes in acclaimed school districts have a higher value than homes which belong to homes with low rankings.

• Natural disasters affecting the area. Communities that are usually affected by natural disasters have lower equity compared to those that are on safer grounds.

• All these factors are included when I give you a free home valuation.